sustain

/səsˈteɪn/suh-STAYN

Meaningto uphold

Common meaning: to keep going

susunder, up from belowSkeat, Concise Etymological Dictionary (1911), p. 533 · scan
tainto hold, keep hold ofLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 1853 · scan

‘under, up from below’ + ‘to hold, keep hold of’ → sustain

Journey through time

sus — Latin sub- “under, up from below” (path traced)
tain — Latin teneō, tenuī, tentum “to hold, keep hold of” (path traced)

Parts join in Latin as sustinere.

Latinsub- + tenere‘under, up from below + to hold, keep hold of’source
Latinsustinere‘to uphold’source
Old Frenchsustenirsource
Middle Englishsusteinensource
Englishmeaning shiftsto uphold → to keep goingsustain‘to keep going’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin sustinere, which Skeat (Concise Dictionary, 1911) analyses as sub- ‘under, up from below’ + tenere ‘to hold, keep hold of’.

Roots

sustinere Latin “to uphold”
teneō, tenuī, tentum Latin “to hold, keep hold of”

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